EMOTIONAL EATING

EMOTIONAL EATING

Emotional eating is a practice that leads an individual to excessive consumption as a way to find comfort during stressful or depressive periods of their life. Some might consider it a habit of eating to relieve themselves from negative emotions. Still, frequently, especially when it becomes frequent, it can result in serious weight gain to obesity.

Any factors that can trigger stress, such as problems in work, family, friends, and relationships, can cause someone to resort to emotional eating. According to studies, however, women are most prone to this eating practice.

The psychology behind this practice revolves around the fact that eating food makes someone feel that all his or her empty feelings are “filled” temporarily, although this one is a false notion.

Several factors explain why individuals resort to eating when they experience stress or other emotional periods. Below are the following:

  • Doesn’t engage in activities that could be a means to reduce stress and loneliness.
  • The cortisol levels in one’s body that also change when stress happens that triggers sudden cravings
  • Failure to recognized the difference between normal hunger and emotional hunger
  • Unable to find friends or companions that serve as the support system when stress kicks in
  • Inferior to at times negative perception of one’s self that when occurs periodically can lead to a cycle of binge eating

SYMPTOMS

Some people often misunderstood this practice of eating due to emotional stress to normal physical hunger. However, one must be cautious in taking note of the following signs and clue that might show that you are experiencing emotional hunger:

  • Craving for a specific type of food
  • Overeating or binge eating and yet you still do not feel any sensation that you are already full.
  • There is an associated shame and guilt in eating.
  • The hunger comes too sudden or too abrupt.

TREATMENT

Preventing the practice of emotional eating which can cause several issues in your health and wellness requires a change in one’s usual mindset and routine that will help you re-program yourself in avoiding eating as a way to address your stress and emotional dilemmas.

An excellent alternative to ease the effect of stress than binge eating is to try new ways on how to counter them. These can include engaging in a much more healthy practice or activities such as book reading, writing journals, and poetry or do any chores that help you relax and declutter your mind. It may take some time to lessen the urge to eat when being stressed finally, but it will be rewarding when you finally overcome it.

Routines that involve physical movements like exercise and jogging are also an effective way to take off the steam brought by stress and emotions. Taking yoga classes are also helpful to calm yourself in those moments of heightened emotional state.

Other recent studies have also shown the effectiveness of meditation for treating emotional eating and other eating disorders. Just taking a short minute of breathing in and breathing out can work wonders to calm yourself instead of dealing with foods.

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